Search Results for sentencing guidelines

The Mexican government has published new sentencing guidelines that will double prison sentences for kidnapping crimes. This increases the minimum sentence for such crimes from 20 to 40 years, and the maximum from 50 to 140 years for those who kill their victims. Other factors that affect sentence ...[read more]

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is expanding its criteria for recommending clemency to federal prisoners convicted of certain drug crimes. Holder's announcement recapped the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) that President Barack Obama signed into law ...[read more]

New York has agreed to reforms that would reduce the use of solitary confinement and ban solitary confinement for prisoners under 18 years old, according to court documents released on Wednesday. Under the agreement, the state will immediately halt the use of solitary confinement for youth, ...[read more]

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Burrage v. US to relax sentencing guidelines for drug dealers. Marcus Burrage was convicted of distribution of heroin causing death under 21 USC § 841, and he appealed by challenging the causation instruction the courts were using for § 841. Burrage ...[read more]

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday in Peugh v. United States that there is an ex post facto violation when a defendant is sentenced under US Sentencing Guidelines promulgated after he committed his criminal acts and the new version provides a higher applicable Guidelines sentencing range than ...[read more]

Former Michigan Supreme Court justice Diane Hathaway was sentenced on Tuesday to a year and a day in prison for bank fraud. Hathaway concealed assets while dealing with a bank to arrange a short sale on her home, which allowed her to sell her home for less than she owed and to avoid foreclosure. ...[read more]

The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday declined to hear the appeals of three men convicted of participation in a terrorist plot. Zakaria Amara, Saad Khalid and Saad Gaya, who were members of the "Toronto 18" terrorist group, were given sentences ranging from 14 years to life for their ...[read more]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases on Tuesday. In Maryland v. King the court heard arguments on whether the Fourth Amendment permits states to collect DNA samples from individuals charged with serious crimes, as allowed under Maryland's DNA Collection Act. The Chief Deputy ...[read more]

On November 1, 2011, the US Sentencing Commission (USSC) released new guidelines that reduced federal minimum sentencing guidelines for those convicted on charges related to crack cocaine. These new guidelines reduced the sentences of 12,000 inmates and were intended to address the overcrowded ...[read more]

On July 9, 2009, a group of federal judges urged the US Sentencing Commission (USSC) to revise the calculations used to determine federal criminal sentences, calling them complicated and mechanical. A few months earlier, US Attorney General Eric Holder had called for a review of disparities ...[read more]